Baird

The IT Project Manager (PM) role at Baird leads cross-functional teams to deliver high-value, business-critical technology solutions throughout the firm. PMs are responsible for partnering with key sponsors and leaders to identify and prioritize project opportunities and collaborating with project team members to effectively manage tasks & activities. PMs leverage strong communication and organizational skills to build trust and credibility with stakeholders and are accountable for the overall health & success of projects & client relationships.

Baird is looking for a qualified project manager to join our IT team aligned with Global Investment Banking. This team is responsible for prioritizing, planning, and executing a backlog spanning various workstreams with a heavy emphasis on Salesforce. This person will know how to engage and operate within an Agile environment to manage logistics, planning efforts, and communication with stakeholders. This role will require an individual that’s flexible, positive, and works well with teams and people. Our PM’s are a key driver of success for high profile, business critical projects.

Our team operates out of our downtown Milwaukee headquarters with a hybrid set up 2-3 days per week in office.

As an IT Project Manager, you will:

Planning and Organizing

• Organize the initiation and upfront planning of projects. Projects tend to be of varying sizes from small to large process changes and include high degrees of complexity and ambiguity.
• Build a foundation of trust, collaboration, and respect with cross-functional team members and project stakeholders.
• Partner with product owner(s) on backlog and roadmap management activities.

Delivering Outcomes

• Effectively manage project execution by leveraging a variety of tools, techniques, methodologies, and deliverables.
• Identify project risks & issues and adjust the plan and/or execution approach accordingly.
• Lead, inspire, and assist the team in achieving project objectives to ensure client satisfaction.

Communication

• Establish and understand the importance of strong, trusting relationships across Baird, including with direct stakeholders on the project and leadership sponsors.
• Deliver timely updates to key internal and external project stakeholders through various communication channels.
• Effectively facilitate project meetings sharing concise agendas, clear outcomes, audience-appropriate messaging, key takeaways, etc.

Navigating Complexity

• Develop an understanding of how to navigate organizational hierarchy & dynamics to escalate project issues quickly and efficiently, facilitate effective decision-making, and drive the work forward.
• Lead the project team through challenges, help remove roadblocks & impediments, and motivate team members to push past obstacles to meet client expectations and deadlines.
• Demonstrate organizational savvy by connecting dots across the firm to help achieve outcomes.
• Work with vendors to manage deliverables according to agreed upon timelines.

Team Leadership

• Earn the respect & trust of peers to effectively lead the project team.
• Influence outcomes without positional authority and, when appropriate, engage leader(s) to help support team needs.
• Serve as a mentor & coach to immediate peers and provide direct feedback to encourage growth.
• Seek out continuous improvement opportunities and help implement them within the project team.

Professional Knowledge and Skills

• Actively participate in the Project Manager Community of Practice (PMCoP) and develop a reputation as a subject matter expert.
• As project & team needs demand, develop working knowledge of relevant business unit, corporate resource group (CRG) department, and/or project technologies to help build credibility with team members and stakeholders.
• Seek out internal & external professional development programs, share knowledge with peers and effectively apply it on projects.

What makes this opportunity great:

• Ability to work on critical projects with a variety of teams and leaders, proving your ability to influence and make business impact through providing technology solutions
• Information technology is a core part of Baird’s business strategy and plays a critical role in the growth and transformation of the firm
• Team of associates passionate about achieving great results for clients and give back to the communities where we live and work

What we look for:

• A minimum of five years of prior IT experience, including at least three years related PM experience.
• Bachelor degree in Computer Science, MIS, Business Administration is preferred but equivalent experience is considered too.
• Experience working with various technology areas including software development and infrastructure projects.
• Detail oriented and possess exceptional organizational, time management, and problem-solving skills.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills, ability to influence without authority.
• Experience in managing technical projects with large deployments (geographic and / or user counts).
• Thorough working knowledge of Microsoft Office Visio & Project are a plus.
• Experience in various project methodologies – Agile experience is preferred.
• Prior enterprise and global experience are a plus.

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Baird is committed to diversity and provides employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, citizenship, national origin, age, disability, military service, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, or any other status protected by law.